Jordan 3D lab prints limbs for war-wounded, disabled kids
Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni amputees benefit from 3D printing at MSF hospital
Iraqi soldier Abdullah lost his left hand fighting the Daesh but now he has a prosthetic one — thanks to a 3D printing lab in Jordan.
Abdullah was wounded in a mine blast as Iraqi forces battled to oust the militants from Iraq’s second city Mosul last year. His right hand was also seriously wounded.
The 22-year-old is one of a group of Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni amputees to benefit from a 3D-printing prosthetics clinic at a hospital run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
“It’s not easy to replace a hand, but at least the new device gives me some autonomy and means I don’t rely too much on my brother to eat,” said Abdullah, who asked not to use his real name.
Wearing jeans and a dark green shirt, he said he had been transferred from Mosul to a hospital in the Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil before heading to Jordan.
“Now I feel better,” he said, managing a small smile. “I hope I can heal my right hand too.”
The 3D printing technique allows the team to create simple upper limbs without moving parts, slashing the costs of manufacturing advanced, custommade prosthetic limbs, according to MSF.
The MSF Foundation, a wing of the charity dedicated to research and development, set up a prosthetics production centre in Jordan’s Irbid last June.
A team of medics and technicians use the technique to help people born with genetic deformations as well as war wounded from across the region.
Doctors start by taking photos and measurements and sending them to the laboratory in Irbid, 100km north of Amman.
The data is entered into a system that designers use to create a virtual model of the limb, which is then printed and sent to MSF’s Al-Mowasah hospital in Amman for fitting.
Several organisations have developed 3D printing for amputees in recent years, but MSF says its project is a first in the Middle East. The clinic aims to give orthopaedic care to as many people as possible affected by the region’s conflicts.
Project coordinator Pierre Moreau said it had treated 15 Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Palestinians and Jordanians since its launch.
“We chose Jordan because we have one of the biggest hospitals and most advanced, and it is a stable place in the middle of a war region so we have access to patients from Syria, Iraq and Yemen,” he said in English.